A STRATEGY FOR OLD AGE

Believe it or not, one of my heroes used to be BF Skinner (above), the famous behaviorist. His ideas seem dated now, but back in the day I read a few of his books including the one on old age. I was in my early 20s and it gave me a lifelong interest in the subject. Now I find myself only a decade or so from having a practical interest in it and not just a theoretical one. I can't wait to read the book again to see if it holds up. 

Anyway, I have my own strategy for dealing with those problems when the time comes and I thought I'd talk about it here. 

Well, I'm most concerned about lifestyle. What kind of old guy will I be? Will I be envied by others for my hipness or be pitied because I'm a doddering old whatzzit? Of course I'd like to be envied and for that I have a two-pronged solution. First I'll get a nice tailored suit and do the whole suave thing. My role model will be the World's Most Interesting Man in the beer commercial. 

The other half of the time I might try my hand at being an eccentric. I'm not naturally inclined that way but it's possible that I'll grow into the part like so many people do. I picture myself with a small hat, a beard, maybe a unibrow...and I'll slurp my soup.

Maybe I could become a sort of handyman and fix things around the house.

If eccentricity is something you can steer like a boat then I think I'd like to be an opinionated eccentric like John Barrymore in "Twentieth Century." Here (above) he says, "What do you know about talent? What do you know about theatre? What do you know about genius? What do you know about anything you, you...you BOOK KEEPER!?"

Of course at a certain time of life I'll have to stop thinking about young women.

I'll have to learn to appreciate women who are my own age.

I'll also have to discipline myself so I don't criticize people when they do something dumb. They think you're crazy when you do that and I'll need their forbearance when I do something dumb myself.

I've had to abandon some of my earliest plans. When I was a kid I considered being a vigilante in my extreme old age, ridding the world of obvious over-the-top criminal types who do unspeakable things.

All these years later that doesn't seem like such a good idea. If I get addled, how will I know who the criminals are? I'd leave a trail of dead crossing guards and baby sitters.

I also considered becoming a heavy drinker and a cigar smoker in my extreme old age. After all, what would I have to lose? But that wouldn't work either.

I guess if I knew the exact day of my demise I could arrange to have a few sybaritic months beforehand, but nobody knows that. What if you inflict all that cognitive impairment on yourself then live another 20 years? It reminds me of what Yogi Berra said: "If I had known I'd live this long I would have taken better care of myself." 

So what does that leave? I have serious things I want to accomplish but what will I do for recreation? As it happens so often, Basil Wolverton shows the way (above). I'm an artist so I'll take up painting. I'll paint my older friends.

I'll try different styles. I could fill a garage with this stuff. Someday it'll all end up in a thrift store and become much valued by punk rockers.

I got this drawing (above) off the net. It gives me confidence that if my line quality deteriorates I can just adapt to whatever the new bad drawing thing is.

That's all I have to say about this, but I'll add that Skinner is no longer in my Pantheon of heroes. I had an experience with his conditioning theories that resulted in demerits for the master. I'll blog about it sometime. I still like the guy though, and I don't regret that I was influenced by him.

P. S. Mike started to read this and put it down because he thought it was depressing. I don't see why. It's about a problem to deal with, just like anything else. It's just hard to think originally about the subject because so little's been written about it. Here's (below) a link to one of the rare articles. I don't agree with the author, but he's made a good conversation starter.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/

MAO'S GREAT FAMINE

It seemed appropriate on the eve of Veterans' Day to reprise this book review I wrote way back in 2011. A member of my family is in the military and this is my way of thanking him for the sacrifices he made to keep people like me safe from fanatics like Mao. The book review:

 

I just started "Mao's Great Famine," a history of Mao's Great Leap Forward (1958-1962). The author, Frank Dikotter, estimates that at least 42 million Chinese were deliberately starved by Mao in this period. Estimates by other writers range from 30 million to 70 million. Well, that beats Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot, by a long shot. The last time I looked (years ago) The Guinness Book of World Records listed Mao as the greatest mass murderer in history, and if Dikotter is right, then I guess he was.

Apparently Mao believed that he was the greatest living Marxist theoretician, but he needed Stalin's aid, so he kept the bragging to a minimum as long as Stalin was alive. When Stalin died in 1953 Mao looked around for a dramatic demonstration that China was the true home of communism, and what he came up with was a plan to industrialize the country in just a few short years.

To accomplish this he bought a bunch of obsolete old factories from the Russians, and promised to pay for them with Chinese grain. The problem was that there wasn't enough grain for the Chinese, let alone for the Russians. Grain was seized from the already strapped peasants and sent out of the country. Peasants who resisted were treated as counter revolutionaries. Lots of them starved.

Factories require iron and steel, so Mao collected most of the country's pots and pans, tools and farm implements so they could be melted down. How, you might ask, were the peasants supposed to cook their food? The answer is, they weren't. Government canteens were set up, and you got your meals there. If you didn't meet your farm quota that day (maybe because your tools had been seized), you didn't get any food. Lots of people starved because they were barred from the canteens.

Even if you got the food, it was a mixed blessing. All along the distribution lines thieves drained grain from sacks and substituted sand. By the time the sacks got to the canteens they contained a good portion of sand, meaning that the soup everybody got was pretty gritty.  Then there was the question of how the soup was served. The kitchen worker could ladle from the watery top of the kettle, or the denser bottom, depending on how much he liked you. If he didn't like you, you could starve.

Farming on the collective farms was a nightmare. Peasants were rounded up and taken to freezing fields where they were expected to dig furrows for planting, only they had no metal tools. Too few furrows meant no canteen. Lots of people died from exposure, exhaustion and hunger.

Then there was the prosperity parties. It occurred to Mao that all the killing might depress the morale of the people who were still alive, so to bolster their spirits he declared a week-long (I think it was a week) national party where the canteens disgorged their supplies, and everyone was required to overeat. Lots of photos were taken of happy peasants pushing away food when they just couldn't eat any more. Unfortunately the aftermath of the parties was even greater starvation.

Mao is said to have remarked that there'd be plenty of grain for the Chinese if they had half the population. Maybe he killed off so many people that the remainder finally had the necessities of life, I don't know. A Maoist on the internet claims that the population tripled during this time, that everybody was happy, and that only gangsters and imperialists would criticize the sensitive poet and father of his people. You be the judge. Anyway, the respite after The Great Leap didn't last long. Later Mao would start The Cultural Revolution, with all the loss of life that would entail.

The book:

http://www.amazon.com/Maos-Great-Famine-Devastating-Catastrophe/dp/0802777686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299893964&sr=8-1

Here's (above) the author.

RE-THINKING TOMORROWLAND (EXPANDED)

Of all the possible futures envisioned by architects the one that appeals to me most is the one in which the world has been reforested. It would be a high tech world with all the modern innovations, but one in which nature would never be far from our front door.

Utopians disagree about the nature of this urban forest. Lots of people want to see concrete skyscrapers sticking out of tended gardens a little like the one above. That's not a bad way to go, and it would be a big improvement over what we have now, but I'd like to see some towns try a different look.

 My own taste is for a mixture of tended gardens and of primeval, wild, old-growth, urban forest. I don't mind pushing aside branches every once in a while. It's probably a wildly impractical idea, but I wouldn't mind being one of the people who try it.

These towns would be home to free-roaming wild animals.

Don't ask me how that could be made to work. Figuring out the "how" is somebody else's job.

What would the houses and sidewalks look like in such a town? Maybe something Arthur Rackhamish, like this (above).

This (above), by the way, is one of my all-time favorite landscape photos. It's a thought-provoking picture that really is worth a thousand words. You might want to enlarge it.

 Rackham's illustrations show a fondness for wild, scraggy forests.

Most artists favor the sentimental Romantic forest (above) where trees look cute, like something out of a Disney film. Not so for Arthur Rackam.

Rackham took forests as he found them. They're not easy to traverse, and they don't exist for our sake; in fact, it's not at all clear how man fits into them. They're a mystery, an enigma, a place where gnomes and mythological creatures might be plausible..

I think about things like that when I'm in the treehouse at Disneyland. Now that would be a great house to live in, but it would require a colossal old growth tree and there aren't many of those these days.

Here's a more modest ground-level house, surrounded by wild, stringy foliage. It still has the Rackham touch.

Of course this Utopian town requires creeks and rivers that would be well-stocked with fish.

Kids' walk to school would take them through beautiful caves.

Uh-oh. It's a traffic jam (above). Roads in the town are narrow and nature is always close by. I don't envision cars covered with moss like the one in the foreground, but I like the idea of narrow streets in the verdant jungle. I like the idea of leafy tunnels.

Most people would find it easier to use public transportation instead. Within the town that would be provided by miles-long roller coasters (above) that wind their way up and down through the forest.

Maybe the Disney people should build a green town like this in Tomorrowland. After all,  we're all headed for a green future.

My ideal town would contain several rope bridges.

Maybe a Chinese bridge, too. I don't know if the style would fit in, but what the heck.

Would the town have an airport? Yes, a small one. Something very high tech. The idea is to cobine very high tech with very low tech.

With stewardesses, too!

DECO CARS

Is it just me? Am I the only one who was unaware that Deco cars ever existed in large numbers? Look at this 1948 Buick Skyliner (above). Was this really ever built?

Wow! A car (above) that looks like it's moving even when it stands still.

This (above) looks like a toy. Was there ever a real, assembly line version of this? Not that I know of. 

I used to wonder how drastic tail fin cars of the 50s (above) ever got the green light from cautious Detroit. Now I have a possible explanation. They were okayed because, drastic as they were, they were less drastic than the Deco designs that preceded them.

How do you like this 1939 Cabriolet "World's Fair?" Nice, huh?

Many thanks to Pseudonym for turning me on to cars I didn't know about. Here's (above)  the 1938 Phantom Corsair, which I assume was a concept car.

Woooooww! Look at that rear!

Also thanks to Pseudo, the 1936 Stout Scarab. If I understand right this was designed for mass production but the designer died and the funding collapsed after only nine cars were made.

Above, the Scarab interior.

Here's the Efijy, another concept car that looks like it's moving even when it's standing still.

The Efijy from the rear. Very nice!

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BTW: "Anonymous" wrote to correct what I said about Cars #1 & 2 and the Efijy. What he said is so informative that it deserves a place up front, under the post. His comment:

Fascinating! I didn't know Delahaye even existed! Here's another of their cars with a 30s look (below).

ANOTHER HALLOWEEN BITES THE DUST

Wow! What a year! I might have had the most kids ever at the door. Princesses, Ninja Turtles, Minnie Mouses, witches and skull monsters...all were there.

I wonder how many overate when they got home.

Actually, I almost collapsed from a sugar high because I couldn't help eating what I was passing out. I ate the stuff all night.

It's a terrible feeling to get sick from candy. You realize there's nothing for it but to let it run itself out...painfully slow.

The next day I took down the porch decorations. Most of mine were paper and handmade and I got some positive comments on them, mostly from art students and parents. Little kids are too greedy to pay attention to anything but the level of chocolate in the bag.

Oh! I almost forgot.....before the last embers of Halloween die out I want to re-publish one of the alltime great Halloween photos, called "Pumpkin Queen." It's co-designed by our own Joel Binkerhoff and has been a kind of lucky charm for this site since he sent it to me a few years ago. I can't believe the picture hasn't made Joel and his partner rich by now.